Commissioners Could Move To End Manager's Tenure

fort lauderdale — Floyd Johnson may have worked his last day as city manager.

As commissioners conduct an emergency meeting today over their resign-or-be-fired ultimatum, Johnson won't be on hand to work with commissioners on an exit agreement. He won't even be in Florida.

By the time he returns in a few days from a meeting in San Francisco, commissioners could have replaced him with an interim city manager and agreed to give him a very large check to go away.

Johnson has maintained public silence since Sept. 16, when commissioners voted 3-2 to ask for his resignation and, if that was not forthcoming, to fire him. He sat stoically through that final budget meeting that continued for hours after he essentially lost his job, speaking only when commissioners asked for details of other city business.

Today, commissioners are expected to discuss whether to cut him loose immediately and move ahead with an interim city manager and a search for a new permanent city manager. They will also discuss unresolved issues surrounding the budget that was approved last week despite concerns it was flawed.

One proposal would allow Johnson to resign, take $251,174 in salary and benefits plus additional vacation and sick leave pay, and be gone immediately rather than waiting the 60 days his contract requires between a notice of termination and the actual firing date. Another option is to suspend him, with pay or without, until the 60 days are up and he is fired.

Johnson's two assistant city managers, Greg Kisela and Bud Bentley, said they met one-on-one with the mayor and commissioners. Kisela said they're interested in an "early exit." "You might see him around City Hall," Kisela said, "but not in his capacity as city manager."

Even if Johnson officially loses his job today, his absence had already begun. He has been scarce at City Hall. He didn't go into the office Wednesday, and Bentley was in charge. Thursday, he left for a National Urban Fellows board meeting. Next week, he heads to Chicago for a board meeting of the National Forum of Black Public Administrators, of which he is a co-founder.

Kisela said he offered to act as interim city manager, but neither he nor Bentley is interested in the permanent job.

Police Chief Bruce Roberts' name has been floated, but one factor working against him is that he overspent his budget.

Commissioners also might discuss a new proposal to reduce all employee salaries citywide, to avoid a proposal for unpaid furloughs that has angered employees. Mayor Jim Naugle said elected officials would be included.

"I guess leaders should be willing to take it in the pocket," Naugle said.

If commissioners want to restore items not included in the $377 million budget, they'll have to offer new cuts.

"This budget even as adopted is extremely tight," Kisela said. "It's achievable, but there's not a whole lot of slack there."

The budget was approved, but commissioners were unhappy with items Johnson cut out and items he left in. Some commissioners wanted managers' longevity pay removed and replaced with less money in "merit pay." Longevity checks are hefty, and the city's Budget Advisory Board recommended freezing them as of Aug. 1, to save $600,000.

Finance Director Damon Adams, for example, who resigned in the spring, got a longevity check for $16,274 last year, according to city records.

Commissioner Dean Trantalis, who along with Vice Mayor Carlton Moore wanted to keep Johnson, said the approved budget was confusing, and the "Chinese menu" method of fixing it is a mess.

"It's a lot of machete politics. You go in there, you chop away at proposals and at the institutions that have been established over time, without thinking. And you clear a path and you hope it gets you where you're going and you don't know what you've trampled on in the process. That is not a way to run a city government," Trantalis said.

While Johnson has been silent, the public hasn't. E-mails and phone calls to commissioners and Johnson before and after he was put on notice show mixed feelings about the budget troubles and who is to blame for them.

Members of the Fort Lauderdale branch of the NAACP grilled Naugle about Johnson's firing and the city's budget woes during a meeting Thursday night. Many said Johnson was unfairly blamed for the budget problems and questioned whether proper procedure was followed when Hutchinson made a motion for Johnson's removal in the middle of the budget meeting.

"Our city attorney said everything was legal," Naugle said. "If a commissioner wants to make a motion like that, we have the ability ... to terminate at will. Though I thought the motion was made at the wrong time, I didn't feel I had the right to rule it out of order."

Naugle said he voted in favor of Johnson's firing because he was afraid he wasn't going to get another chance to do so. "It was the right thing to do," he said.